House Committee to take up issue next week

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Over a week after the Opposition accused the government of deploying troops armed with wooden poles and iron bars at a protest launched by Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) in Colombo on March 07, Army headquarters said that the contingent of men in question had not been identified.

Military Spokesman Brig. Ravi Herath insisted that those men in photographs released to the media and in video footage were certainly not army personnel.The IUSF is affiliated to the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), a breakaway faction of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Asked how a contingent of men in uniform positioned so close to the police tasked to crackdown on protesting IUSF activists, the Military Spokesman claimed troops deployed in support of law enforcement authorities were about 500 metres away.

“Those in disputed video footage and still pictures are definitely not army personnel,” Brig. Herath said. The Signals officer received appointment as the military spokesman in early October last year after the change of government.

Pointing out that JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake had released those controversial pictures to the media, The Island asked whether the Army headquarters would lodge a complaint with the police with the objective of establishing the identity of the contingent and the authenticity of the photographs. While ruling out the possibility of the army lodging a complaint, Brig. Herath said the issue was being handled by the police.

State Defence Minister Prameetha Bandara Tennakoon, too, told The Island those who had been pictured carrying wooden poles were yet to be identified. He said that a statement on the issue would be issued soon.

The Island raised the issue with Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security. He said that he would take up the issue at the next committee meeting on Tuesday (21).

FSP spokesperson Pubudu Jagoda said that the government was now trapped in its own lies. Having cleared the Army of deploying troops armed with poles and clubs, the government spokespersons had no option but to propagate more lies, Jagoda, who is also FSP’s Education Secretary said.

However, due to the timely exposure of what he called illegal deployment, the defence top brass would have to be mindful of such actions, Jagoda said. The former JVPer found fault with the media for not vigorously pursuing this issue.

“The police are selectively efficient. Take the recent case of a young couple leaving their newborn in a train at the Fort Railway station. They were taken in within 24 hours and Police headquarters ordered an investigation into the conduct of those who arrested them. But the same efficiency is missing in the case of the contingent of ghost soldiers,” Jagoda said.

Responding to queries, Jagoda said that the government couldn’t discourage them by such tactics.

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told The Island that there couldn’t be any issue with regard to the credibility of evidence before the police. “Both print and electronic media reported this. Social media, too, covered the presence of armed men at IUSF protest,” lawmaker Dissanayake said, urging the government to admit its operation went awry.Dissanayake said that if anyone believed they were fake pictures, the police could question him.

Dissanayake said that those pictures were displayed at a press conference called by the JVP as he didn’t have any doubt about the identity of the contingent in question. “We’ll go flat out on this issue,” Dissanayake said, adding that the government should explain the circumstances troops moved in, in the absence of a declaration of an emergency.